Rains in Ethiopia and adjacent East African parts of the the Nile watersheds have been pumping today. Also across Somalia and Somali land, Sudan, South Sudan and south into areas west of Uganda feeding into Lake Victoria.
Today's rainfall forecasts follow with commentary.
The image above from @NASA Modis shows the upper Nile Basin and areas to the west this morning.
This animation below shows the same area this evening. Storms are once again dancing off the coast of Jeddah, rain surrounds Medina and clouds are gathering over Chad and Sudan.
Here's a close up of the cloud formation over Chad and Sudan today. If you look closely you can see two layers moving in different directions. Some clouds aligning with the westward motion of the monsoon and others, lighter in colour moving north east.
This is the first time this year we have seen cloud over this area so far north into both Eastern Sudan and Chad.
These are areas which are in the heart of the deep Sahara desert. Pictures 1. Chad & Libya. 2. Sudan 3. A map showing the scale of this.
This video, released today by UNSG @antonioguterres - addressing the role of Oceans in balancing weather & and talking about our need to help them do so- is an excellent introduction to the next series of animations.
The UNSG didn't mention the Atlantic but he could have, as it is the main driver of all the unusual weather phenomena we are seeing in the North Western Hemisphere.
The three weather systems bumping into each other over Ireland illustrate this nicely.
Again, this probably wasn't on @antonioguterres's mind during his announcement, but it could have been. This GFS animation shows massive four water vapour pipelines pumping moisture into Europe over the next seven days, two of which we can see in the animation above.
This animation shows the Eastern side of the Atlantic this morning. Top left a large wet north Atlantic cloud mass is pushing in from the west.
Bottom left a #WesternSaharaPlume sourced fromthe Atlantic is crossing Algeria & disrupting weather around the Black Sea, upper right.
Here's a closer view of the collision this afternoon. The storm front advancing up the Moroccan coastline is splitting in two as it is colliding with a high pressure system heading south. Half is going east along the med. Half north west over Ireland.
This close up shows the eastern arm of the Atlantic plume coming up the Western Sahara Coast. The western arm is also there but not visible as its not condensing and forming into cloud.
Here's view of this from the satellites who can see the invisible water vapour. This is a forecast but only six hours into the latest run it is as good as a weather observation.
And here is a view of Europe in a week's time, after the subcontinent has been fully filled with moisture.
In case you are wondering. This is not what is expected in June in Europe.
I cannot say with confidence that this has never happened before, but I seriously doubt it. And it may not.... this is only a forecast. But over seven days these things are now pretty reliable.
So here are today's 10-day North Africa rainfall forecasts.
Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
The Middle East....
Europe...
India....
Eurasia...
Apologies for the late delivery of these forecasts today and the abbreviated format. Internet connectivity issues.
I'd be interested in some computer modellers views of this. The experience of those of us with weather model powered interfaces in our hands have come to realise that a technology that was formerly fairly reliable in Europe isn't really coping.
I have a live example here in Bretagne which is about to play out in real time. This is what my phone says. Rain is coming in 8 hours time. Lowish probability and only lasts four hours.
Well its hard to know where to begin with today's #MiddleEast and #HornOfAfrica rainfall forecasts.
The action is now further north, and west. Here we see the consequences of the first phase of what appears to be becoming a continuous #WesternSaharaPlume.
An bit of a battle us underway between a high pressure system over Northern Erope and the plume which is entering at the bottom left in this image of Jetstream level 250Hpa 11km high winds.
While the model forecasts remain optimistic that an orderly jetstream may eventually appear, so far this has not happened. And in the meantime these winds are picking up moisture in the tropics and taking it in large quantities to places where its not expected.
A full plume event is becoming obvious in central & eastern Europe + Russia. We also have thunderstorms over the Red Sea, and a low circulation heading towards a collision with water vapour over Israel.
Today's forecasts follow.
Visually speaking this is the most extraordinary looking satellite observation of the day.
Now into its sixth day the #EastAfricaWaterPlume has been generating lots of rain over the Red Sea, both last night and today, & right now just off the coast of Jeddah. @Arab_Storms
Here we see a wider view while it is not that obvious in this view, the stream of water vapour heading up the Western Sahara coast is running fast and hot. Later I will post an initial post tracking its impact in Europe. But for now its worth looking closer at North Africa.
Upstream flow gauges in Temuka, Rangitata, Rakaia & Waimakariri appear to be peaking or in the case of the Waimakariri close to peaking.
Meanwhile the official ECAN alerts page seems to not be freaking out, so that's all good >> ecan.govt.nz/home/flood-war….
Steady as she flows.
"Breakouts" in the Ashburton vicinity & inland, are the major concern at present. But whatever "breakouts" are they sound a lot less alarming than floods and evacuations.
Also no alarm around the major rivers, yet. Also good.
The remaining concern will be river mouth flood/tide collisions. High tide timing today is around 6.30am near Timaru, 7.50am at the Rakaia and around 8.30am in Christchuch and at the Waimakariri river mouth.
Here is a wider view. This will definitely continue through a fair bit of the night. Question is now how long will it continue tomorrow? The forecast models showed the plume you see coming in from the right sort of petering out and disengaging and tracking north.
NOTE: This is not an official forecast. But it is alarming. It seems that that peculiar cloud formation is special in a number of rather alarming ways. [Image: @NOAA's GFS model forecast, latest run.]